Schmuck Bait: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'': The Headmaster of Hogwarts would like to remind you that the corridor on the third floor is off-limits to absolutely everyone. As well as the Forbidden Forest.

* ''[[Arabian Nights]]'' contain the story of ''The Man who Never Laughed During the Rest of His Days''. Basically, a young man is charged with taking care of his rich but gloomy uncle and his friends, who spends all their time grieving over some terrible fate that has befallen them. The uncle tells his nephew that he will inherit all his riches as long as he never asks the grieving men about the reason behind their sorrow. On his uncle's deathbed, the young man's curiosity makes him break his promise and ask anyway. The uncle then tells him that if he wants to avoid a terrible fate, he mustn't ever open one of the doors in the building. After the uncle dies, the young man inherit the house and is happy until his curiosity gets the better of him. {{spoiler|He opens the forbidden door and finds himself in an earthly paradise ruled by beautiful women were he is immediately married away with the queen, who lets him rule by her side. But she also tells him that he must never open one of the palace doors. The young man spends seven happy years with his queen, but eventually cannot stop himself looking behind the forbidden door. He finds himself back in his home and unable to return to the queen and the paradise kingdom. He thus, just like his uncle and the other grievers, end up as the titular man who never laughed during the rest of his days.}}

 

 

** If you are advised to NOT enter the little room filled with higher-than-normal magic items in a dungeon expressly made to kill you, guess what you should not do?

** A very literal one also happens in this game. At one point, you receive a message from your mentor that the [[Big Bad]] is preparing a spell that will completely destroy your party, rendering you impossible to raise again. To foil the scheme, you have to go into the next room and let yourself be killed by the monsters. {{spoiler|It is, of course, the [[Big Bad]] impersonating your mentor. If you DO get yourselves killed, he'll mock you for your gullibility. If you don't, and slay the monsters, he'll just reveal himself and rage at you for NOT being a total schmuck.}}

** This totally depends on the player you are using. Back when this game came out, CD-ROM data was not as common as it is today, and most of the earliest CD players would try playing the data track, resulting in a sound that CAN damage your speakers. To keep stupid people from doing this, a lot of games had a track similar to the one in the game in question.

* The ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' games have this in the form of Golden Lumber. It's an indestructible building material, but in most games, it can only be used as fencing. It's also expensive as HELL (one piece usually costs 100,000G. By comparison, one stone piece costs 100G and you can make them yourself). And in many of the older games, golden lumber is taken by your neighbors as showing off your wealth, so your friendship levels will drop, until you sell the pieces you have off. The only game where the stuff is actually useful is in ''HM DS/DS Cute'', where you can make virtually indestructible buildings (and that's only really feasible [[Bragging Rights Reward|late into the game]] or using [[Good Bad Bugs|the 1 Billion Gold glitch]].

* In the ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' mod ''[[A Dance With Rogues]]'', one mission involves pretending to be a stripper so you can infiltrate the mayor's mansion and steal a statue, which you are warned in no unambiguous terms not to tamper with. If you use the item's 'unique power', it summons a succubus (a demon, which is rather more powerful than you should be at that point).

* Among the things said to [[Ecco the Dolphin (series)|Ecco the Dolphin]] by his podmates in the [[Easing Into the Adventure|harmless first lagoon]] is "How high in the sky can you fly?" Trying to answer that triggers the abduction of your pod by aliens and the start of the game.

* ''[[Spelunky]]'' contains various ''[[Indiana Jones]]''-style traps, one or two different types per area. They're all very clearly marked by a shiny (and valuable) idol. Grabbing the idol will set off the trap, and -- if you haven't seen that particular variety of trap before -- it ''will'' kill you.

* In ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl|Pokémon Platinum]]'', there is a member of Team Galactic running back and forth, looking up and down, about five paces each way, as if suffering an attack of epilepsy, in the Galactic Warehouse. He is one of the few Mooks in the building (and, indeed, in the game) who doesn't challenge you to a battle on sight. As those types are usually the ones who give the player useful items or information upon speaking to them, one is naturally inclined to do so...at which point, he challenges you to a battle.